Tuesday, March 11, 2014

The Politics of Romania

Romanian
politics has always been about personalities rather than policies and expedient
coalitions have been formed between the least likely of political bedfellows.

Corruption is never far from the surface and various high-ranking political
figures have been accused of influence-peddling in business dealings,
suppressing the media, vote-rigging, links with the Securitate (Communist
Secret Police) and other wrong-doing.

The country’s current political formation began to
take shape in 1990, after the Romanian Revolution had overthrown the Communist
regime and executed its leader Nicolae Ceaușescu and his wife Elena. Much about the revolution (including
suspicions of involvement from foreign parties and the identity of mysterious
gunmen) remains unclear to this day. What is clear is that just days after the
Ceaușescus were outsted, former Communists led by Ion Iliescu had seized power
by gaining control of the only TV channel on air at the time and making
pronouncements.

Iliescu’s
newly established group, the National Salvation Front, was supposed to organize
general elections in 1990 and stand down. However, it ended up contesting and-
with the help of media monopoly- winning them.

The former Communists continued to dominate the
local political landscape. When students and professors protested at how the
revolution was being hijacked, Iliescu called the miners to Bucharest to
suppress the demonstrating ‘hooligans’, which they violently did. Iliescu’s
party again triumphed at the 1992 elections, before being voted out four years
later, owing in large part to the beginnings of an independent media.

New president Emil Constantinescu began a
far-reaching reform programme. However, the coalition government was beset by
infighting, living standards continued to fall and political disenchantment
fomented. In the 2000 elections the ex-Communist PSD won and Iliescu returned
for another four years.

In 2004, following Romanian’s acceptance into NATO,
the PSD lost to the Justice and Truth Alliance headed by Traian Băsescu who became president. But the squabbling
continued, as the alliance collapsed and disparate parties collued to suspend
Băsescu. One of the few politicians to have been genuinely popular with the
voters, Băsescu easily won the public vote to overturn the suspension and
returned to office. However, Romania was badly rocked by the global economic
crisis, as years of rapid economic growth suddenly turned into recession. With
recovery stymied by political infighting and several domestic scandal, Băsescu
beat PSD candidate Mircea Geoană by only the narrowest of margins in the 2009
elections to ensure another five years as president.

The system in place
is a parliamentary representative democratic republic. Theoretically, the
president safeguards the observance of the Constitution and the proper
functioning of the public authorities.

He acts as a
mediator between the state powers, as well as the state and the punlic. The
prime minister leads the government, which exercises executive power.

Legislative power
is shared between the government and parliament, which is comprised of the
Chamber of Deputies and the Senate. The judiciary is theoretically separate
from both the executive and legislature, although there have been accusations
of interference. Voting takes place
every four years for general elections, every five for presidential
ones. In 2008, Romania adopted the MMP (mixed member proportional
representation) system, instead of the unpopular full representation system in
place previously.